Renault Dokker

The Renault Dokker at a glance

Dacia revealed the Dokker at the Casablanca Auto Show in May 2012, and sales started in Morocco that summer. Romania followed in September 2012, and Germany and Austria in spring 2013. The name comes from the English "dock worker", a hint at load capacity and toughness. Renault sold the same car under its own badge where the Dacia brand was not offered. In Latin America it later became the Renault Kangoo, built in Córdoba, Argentina, from 2018.

Where the Dokker came from: Lodgy roots and a Moroccan plant

The Dokker is closely related to the Renault Lodgy, and the two cars are almost identical up to the windscreen pillars. It is not a version of the Renault Kangoo, even though the Kangoo name was later used for it in Latin America. Using the Logan family's parts kept the price low, and the Tangier plant was built for this kind of low-cost production.

A light update arrived for the 2017 model year. It brought an eight-bar grille, new seat fabrics and trim, and a four-spoke steering wheel, while the technical layout stayed the same. The old 1cars text dated the Renault-badged update to January 2017. Stop/start had already become standard in July 2015, and Euro 6 engines followed in a later update.

Engines, gearboxes and performance

The range combined Renault's simple 1.6 petrol with the 1.5 dCi diesel, and later added turbocharged petrol units. Published figures differ slightly by source, so some rows show a range.

Five-speed manual gearboxes served the basic engines, and six-speed manuals came with the stronger ones. No automatic and no four-wheel drive were offered. The chassis uses MacPherson struts at the front and a twist-beam (H-beam) rear axle, with ventilated front discs and rear drums. The old 1cars text quoted a ground clearance of 190 mm and a kerb weight of 1,152 to 1,205 kg.

By our calculation, the 1.6 MPI moves about 18.3 kg per kW, while the TCe 115 needs only about 14.2 kg per kW. That is why the turbo petrol feels much livelier when the car is loaded. You can check other pairings with the 1cars power-to-weight calculator.

Cargo space, payload and the Dokker Van

Space is the reason to buy a Dokker. The passenger version has two sliding side doors with a 703 mm opening and asymmetric twin rear doors that open to 180 degrees. The Dokker Van replaces the rear seats with a fully enclosed load area.

The "Easy Seat" is a folding, removable front passenger seat. Without it, a 3.11 m pipe or ladder fits inside the van. Options included a steel or mesh bulkhead and roof rails, according to the old 1cars text.

Interior, equipment and trims

The cabin is plain and built from hard plastics, with fabric seats and analogue dials. Higher trims added the Media-Nav system with a 7-inch touchscreen, navigation, Bluetooth and USB, plus a rear camera and rear parking sensors. Air conditioning, cruise control with a speed limiter and electric mirrors were on the option list. Renault trims were called Access, Life and Drive.

In Germany, Dacia priced the passenger Dokker from 8,990 EUR at launch, the cheapest car in its class at the time. Owner reviews quoted in the old 1cars text praised the space and the diesel's economy. They criticised the firm ride, the thin seat padding and the wide pillars.

Fuel use and running costs

The old 1cars text gave about 6.2 to 7.5 l/100 km (31 to 38 mpg US) for the petrol engines. The dCi diesels averaged about 4.5 l/100 km (52 mpg US). The engines and gearboxes are shared with millions of Dacia and Renault cars, so parts are cheap and easy to find. In the Middle East, Renault gave the van a three-year or 100,000 km warranty in 2015. Use the 1cars fuel cost calculator to compare petrol and diesel for your mileage.

Dokker safety: airbags and crash tests

European Dokkers came with front and front side airbags, ABS, brake assist and ESP. Commercial Dokker Vans in some markets had only a driver airbag, with the other items as options. We found no Euro NCAP crash test of the Dokker itself. Latin NCAP tested the Argentine-built Renault Kangoo with two airbags in 2019. It scored three stars for adult occupants (21.56 of 34 points) and four stars for children (38.02 of 49).

Rivals: Dokker vs Caddy, Doblo and Berlingo

The Dokker undercut all of them on price and matched them on space. The Caddy and Berlingo had better cabins, automatic gearboxes and more safety technology. The Doblo offered more engine choice. The Dokker won on simplicity and cost per litre of load space.